I am a novice as far as photography is concerned; but would like to develop photography as a serious hobby.

I bought Olympus C4000Z in Feb, but it recently got destroyed in an accident.

Want to get some directtion/hints on what camera to buy now -- I have a budget of about $500; don't want to go lower than 4 MP; want manual controls on the camera, as well as good point-and-shoot features.